


When Wyatt met Ambrose

by abbeytre3



Category: Tin Man (2007)
Genre: M/M, Memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 22:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8465023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abbeytre3/pseuds/abbeytre3
Summary: Something is bothering Cain, a memory he just can't grasp. It's almost like... he's known Glitch before somehow.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I rewatched the beggining of Tin Man, and one day later here we are.
> 
> If you find any mistakes or want to leave feedback, please feel free, I would really appreciate it!

Living in the palace was good for Glitch. He had not really minders, but reminders. Suddenly he showed up to court one day and his hair was combed, free of snarls, and his waist coat was pressed and buttoned correctly. Perhaps most surprising of all, he was on time.

 Without the constant press of adventure Glitch had gotten even more absentminded. Events were scheduled to account for the man to show up at least an hour late, when the food and guests had drawn his attention and he wandered down to see what all the fuss was about. Glitch was quite shocked, and pleased, the time he discovered it was actually his birthday party. Then he was absolutely delighted to find out that he had a birthday.

The reminders made sure that the shoe was on the right foot, ass well as making sure he showed up to his appointments, even if it was just a meeting with a friend. As good as they were to him, Glitch was even better at losing them, and Cain couldn’t say that it was entirely accidental on Glitch’s part. A quick glance before turning in an unprecedented direction made Cain think that perhaps having constant attention bothered the man as much as it would him.

The thing was, they were good for Glitch. With constant meals at constant times he started to lose that gaunt look about him and even the deep under eye circles were starting to fade. Something about it all was bothering Cain. It wasn’t the reminders, they treated him like a human being, a brilliant but absentminded person, and it was obvious that some of the man knew him before he was debrained, if the quick fondness and tolerance was anything to go by. It was, hard to say actually, but the combed hair swooping across his forehead, hiding the zipper if Glitch tilted his head a certain way, the gleaming pressed suit, it stirred something in Cain.

It wasn’t attraction, that had been there when he was wild eyed and tattered, but it felt more like a memory that was just out of reach. Smoke that you could wave your hand through and not grasp. Sometimes he would get flashes, just a textbook, a brick wall, Glitch but with an insufferably smug grin. It bothered him, the smacks of déjà vu throwing him off whenever Glitch entered a room and he desperately wanted to find the answers his own mind was stubbornly hiding from him.

“and that’s why DG, if you’ve found any trace of me being in the palace or anything, I would appreciate you bringing it to me.” Cain leant back in his seat and took a long drag of his now cold tea, staring into DG’s wide blue eyes from over the rim of the cup.

“Wow. Okay. I thought we were just going to gossip about Az and Jeb getting awful cozy. But you just dumped your soul right there. Like on the table. I think I see bits of it spilling off the edges right now. Pity, I like this one.” DG broke the impromptu staring contest by dragging her hand down her face. “Okay, gosh. Okay you can definitely see how this is a bombshell for me. I mean, one of my best friends just admitted to having down and dirty thoughts about my other best friend. And that’s gonna take a minute.”

“Now wait a minute princess. I did _not-_ ” he stopped and mentally replayed his diatribe- and Oh Shit, there it was. And Of course DG focused in that one sentence!

She took Cain cutting himself off as a chance to continue, “So whatever, go be in love or whatever and leave me to be lonely and single and _by myself_ , but I personally can’t help you with the whole record thing. When mom considered you for the Head Guard position she had a team research if you held any previous position and couldn’t find anything besides various jobs as a tin man. I mean, unless you count your brief stint at the Royal Academy to learn how to properly interact with stuffy government officials.”

The Royal Academy, that sounded familiar, but if it was only a brief stint it couldn’t have been more than a few weeks. Cain sunk lower in his chair and grouchily finished off his tea. “Thanks for doing the preliminary work DG, but now I guess I should do some real investigating instead of just moping about my rotten recollection.”

He had gotten his coat on and hand on the door before DG snapped her fingers and exclaimed, “I know, just ask Raw! As long as its in your mind and only repressed or something, he should be able to get to it no problem!” She smiled slyly, “If you really do want to know I mean.”

Suddenly Cain felt like a fool. Worse than when he asked Adora to a dance and she laughed in his face. Actually thinking back, that was undeniably worse, especially to his gangly teenage self. He still felt like a fool for not considering Raw. With the presentation of a mystery he had fallen right back into Tin Man habits, investigate the object of concern to death. Viewers weren’t admissible in court, so they never had dalliance much with the secluded group. But he wasn’t admitting anything in court and moreover he was searching his own eager mind, not one of a reluctant criminal. It should be the easiest viewing for Raw yet.

Cain tipped his hat, “Much thanks DG. I’ll see you around”

Turning down the hallway on his search for the elusive viewer, Cain could hear a muffled shout “I better hear how this turned out or else!”

Cain chuckled under his breath and headed on his way.

“and this is why I would really appreciate your help Raw. Not being able to recall something that should probably be _so_ obvious is really bothering me.” Cain finished as he reclined back on a grassy hill in front of a lake with Raw.

“Cain sad, which Raw understands. Cain need not talk so much, Raw will help.” Raw’s smile was wobbly and Cain realized that he talked too much again. He hated giving out so much information and yet every time this problem came up it just seemed to spill from him. But at least he was getting somewhere.

“So um, could we do this now, or do you need prep-should I come back later?” Now that he was so close to his goal, Cain wasn’t so sure that he wanted to find out whatever it was. What if he remembered a horrible secret about Glitch? It would undoubtedly change how he acted around Glitch even if he was no longer the same man. But if he forgot it, then it couldn’t have been anything big, …right?

A hand placed on his arm startled Cain out of his thought and realized that Raw had been calling his name.

“Raw is ready now, are you sure?”

Cain nodded strongly and quickly Raw tightened his grip and splayed his other hand against the waters surface. It started to ripple as a scene came into focus.

 

“Hey are you alright? That was pretty brutal.” Slid out in a cultured tone, from an equally posh man, who on closer blurry eyed examination, was an older teenager. Dressed in a tailcoat gleaming with golden embroidery, and spine ram rod straight, it was obvious he was trying to appear older, although his bright eyes gave him away.

“Y-eah, so what. I’m just a stupid wanna be tin man apparently.” Wyatt ran the back of his hand across his eyes and was internally disgusted at finding salty tears being wiped away. He slammed the hand down in the dirt by his side and couldn’t find enough in himself to care about the dirt coating his figure from collapsing by the side of the building.

Wyatt saw a flash of white being waved in front of his face and snatched it. He twisted it over in his grimy hands, soiling the white cloth and finally recognized the cloth as a handkerchief. Wyatt flushed and looked away from it.

“If you made it this far, I doubt that you are just a ‘want to be tin man’. Not just anyone can rub elbows with the elite.” The young man elegantly folded his lanky limbs and placed himself next the Wyatt, headless of the dirt.

Wyatt gave out a watery chuckle, “Bit full of yourself there buddy.”

The young man gave him a sidelong glance, before running his hand through his tousled curls, “’Buddy’ huh. Look I’ll cut you a deal. I’m not, well, the most popular here. I _may_ be known as a bit of a motor mouth that drives people away eventually. But you,” he unfolder a long finger at pointed it directly between Wyatt’s eyes, “You, have no friends. And you’re here for only two more weeks. We will stick together, and who knows I might even reintroduce you to Adora once we have cleaned you up a bit. The two of us a bit of distant cousins so she cannot avoid me forever.”

Looking at them both, sitting in the dirt proposing the weirdest friendship speech he had ever heard, though he wasn’t sure if he had heard a friendship speech before, loosened something in Wyatt’s chest. He hated to admit it, but maybe he had been a bit lonely in this stuffy academy, the only other one to have made the program being _Zero_ , who wouldn’t give him the time of day.

But despite the blatant rejection replaying in his mind and crushing his heart, this strange boy offering his hand to raise Wyatt out of the dirt made him laugh a bit. Happily, a sound he hadn’t heard since his leaving party with the boys.

His eyes crinkled in mirth, and grasping the man’s hand, shook it grandly, startling a chuckle out of the other.

“Wyatt Cain, future tin man at your service.”

“Ambrose Dukas, future palace crony, brilliant to be meeting you.”

 

“Dukas! If we don’t leave now for breakfast, I’m not smuggling food into class for you later!” Wyatt stood outside his door, waiting for the muffled response that was probably hindered by the assortment of screwdrivers Dukas was undoubtedly holding in his mouth, because two hands were just not enough when fiddling with a thinga majiger or other.

Friendship with Ambrose Dukas was a trial. He slept odd hours, constantly forgot to eat, and if he got an idea in his mind, even in the middle of class, he would natter on loudly to Wyatt.

And most of all, that pressed posh appearance that he saw that first day was all fake. Apparently he had been forced to take care of himself because of the mandatory inspection that day. Without threat of punishment it was lucky if his shirt was ever tucked in. And he was covered in engine grease _all day_ , with his pockets constantly rattling with loose nuts and bolts.

It drove Wyatt, who was a relatively neat person, other day impressions aside, completely nut for the first few days.

Then he saw that he always had a comb in his pocket so he could get the snarls out of Dukas’s wild curls every few days so the school matron wouldn’t scream, actually listened to the rambling, and found them much more interesting than the lessons, of which wouldn’t matter in the end as he was there to learn how to interact, not learn fancy mathematics.

And one day, when Cain was filling up a plate with fruit that he _would_ force Dukas to eat, he heard, “Oh hey Cain! Mother henning that boy again?”

And looked around, spotting the person behind him. It was a boy from mathematics, who had sneered at him the first day of class, was now jovially grinning at him.

Wyatt stumbled over his words, “Um yeah, something like that.”

The boy jostled his friend to get him to stop talking and looked directly at Wyatt, “Looks like I owe you an apology dude. The way you were glaring around in class made us think that you looked down on us or something. Guess you just needed a friend. Looks like the head case has been good for you. See you in class dude, we have group projects coming up.”

The boy grabbed an apple and exited the line with his entourage.

That one interaction made Wyatt feel off kilter. Now that he thought about it, the the last few day had been free of whispers and mocks, something he thought would have risen after… Adora.

Maybe assuming that everyone was snotty and spoiled wasn’t the best way to have others assume the best of him.

He grabbed his tray laden down with fruits and _its only one carrot Dukas_ dazedly sat back down at their table.

 

“Hey does it bother you when people call you a head case?”

“Does it bother you when people say that you’re heartless?” Dukas looked up from his machine made up of so many delicate parts Wyatt was sure he would break it just by looking at it, “Oh I’m sorry Cain, was that rude?”

Wyatt leaned back, flopping down on Dukas’s bed. “Yeah it kinda was but so was my question.” He rolled over onto his stomach and rested his head on folded arms to peer at Dukas working, “Hey. Why do you call me Cain? I’m leaving tomorrow, I feel like we probably know each other well enough to most to first name basis.”

Dukas lifted his welding goggles off of his eyes, leaving two perfectly clean spots on a sooty face, “Huh? Wait, what?! Tomorrow!” He glanced at the calendar propped on the desk, three months behind the actual date. He slumped over his machine, holding it like a stuffed toy, “Ooh. I did not realize.” Moodily he put the machine down and started peeling off his heavy apron, “I call you Cain because Wyatt does not sound very intimidating. And if you are a tin man, you must sound intimidating. Why do you call me Dukas? I think you are the only one to do so, though not many call me by name anyways.”

“I call you by your last name because you call me by mine. Why do you want me to call you Ambrose?”

He had now cleaned off his hands and was rooting though his closet for clean clothes. “I would not mind. Would probably be nice.”

Wyatt thought nothing off it when Du-Ambrose tossed off his sweaty shirt and tossed it in his general direction, but Ambrose moving to undo his belt had him ducking his head quickly,

“Ambrose! A little warning next time?! Propriety! Government service! Me not having a heart attack!”

“I have to get out of these soiled clothes somehow Wyatt.”

 

Going back to the police academy to finish up his last month was different. Wyatt had gotten… used to Ambrose and he kind of missed him. He had friends here, really good friends, but none of them were as eccentric or lively as Ambrose was.

It didn’t help that as soon as he got back, _Zero_ had spread around that Wyatt had his ass handed to him emotionally by a girl. Which, he might not be hurting from it very much any more, but it still stung to hear jokes about it every waking moment. It wasn’t like Zero hadn’t been rejected plenty while at the Royal Academy. He must have asked out every girl, though he probably didn’t cry afterword’s.

Graduation was a litany of required goodbyes and farewell speeches when all Wyatt wanted to do was whoop and holler to all of the O.Z. that he got assigned to the Central City. He wouldn’t just be dealing with petty theft and speeding fines, but be able to make a _real_ actual difference!

Until a smarmy voice came up behind him with an irristably punchable face; Wyatt had grown up in the same small town as Zero, who had bothered and bugged him at every turn.

“So _Wyatt_ , looks like we’re heading to the big city huh. We’ve been together since what, primary school?”

“ _Yes_ Zero. We have.drain” Wyatt was sure that his long suffering was coming across, but Zero just kept smiling insipidly at him.

“Wyatt! I have not seen you in so long! Congratulations on graduating!” A lithe body latched itself onto Wyatt’s right side.

Blood immediately drained from Zero’s face, “I didn’t realize, I mean obviously, at the academy-good day!” and he scampered off.

Wyatt grinned at Ambrose, “I have no idea what you did but I am so glad you did it.”

Ambrose grinned “You seemed _really_ pissed off that he was flirting with you. And not regular pissed off like when I was using your good shirt for a Bunsen burner experiment, but _I am going to punch Darko if he says head case one more time_ pissed off.”

Wyatt grinned back before the full sentence registered, he sputtered, “F-flirting?! No. No, you see Ambrose, we grew up together. I hate him, he hates me, it’s a thing. It works.”

Ambrose shrugged, the motion going through him and into Cain, “If you say so. Wait,” he looked at Wyatt with wide eyes, “does this mean I can not kiss you?”

“If course it doesn’t”

Wyatt Cain learned two things that day. One, graduation day is amazing and two, he would never taste anything better than Ambrose Dukas.

 

In two years since coming to the city, Cain had taken down numerous criminals and already had an accolade to his name. He had never had his mind and body pushed to such extremes and yet at the same time felt such accomplishment.

He had coworkers, and he had sorta kinda  friends, people who he could talk to but not really someone he would go grab a meal with, and he had _Zero._ The ever present cruel smirk that grew more pronounced with every day sans a letter from Ambrose.

Maybe he was too busy with his fancy palace job, or he just got distracted and forgot, but every day Wyatt was a little bit close to punching the double suns out of Zero. _If he asked after Ambrose one more time_ …

 

 

And then there was Adora. The lovely goddess of a human being who had shattered his heart three years ago. Three years had healed the wounds on his heart and opened hers.

But she approached him first. And the first date went, well it was horrible. He stuttered, she was silent, and the night ended with him spilling wine on her dress and losing his wallet. The second date, was to a zoo and when she cooed at a baby rhinoceros, Wyatt was sure that he was in love all over again.

 

Four years after graduation, Wyatt was officially Tin Man Cain, Cain was much more intimidating after all, and a quick wedding changed Adora from Stone to Cain.

 

Eight months later, a bouncy Jeb was born and only the training of sitting through Ambrose’s loud chatter kept Wyatt sane. Jeb was a very _vocal_ baby-

“Stop! Okay Raw you can stop now! I know the rest!”

Raw wrenched his hand out of the water, staring at Cain calmly. “Ambrose and Glitch are same.”

“Yeah I know, he didn’t really change all that much sans a brain did he.” Cain shoved his hat down over his eyes and thought. Its was really only about a month of interaction, but still, how could he forget someone as bright as Glitch?

Cain jumped when he realized he was still connected to Raw, “Not forget, block out. Too painful to remember.”

Cain took his arm back and nodded. “Probably. God and people say I’m heartless, that would make this whole thing a lot easier.”

Raw titled his head and said slowly, “But you love him, why  are you still here?”

Cain knew when he was being dismissed. Getting up and brushing the grass off of his pants Cain waved goodbye and started trudging back to the castle. He really was a heartless youth. He could have easily been reassigned to the palace or gotten permission to come up, at least he would have gotten closure. Hell, he could have just sent a letter. But no, the Wyatt of Cain’s past waited around, like receiving a letter first was a sign of it being meant to be.

If Cain was around, if Ambrose had still wanted him, would things have gone differently? Would Cain still be in the metal suit and would Glitch have lost his brain? Realistically… Cain would have been killed as he was the least important person in the palace; Glitch was only kept alive due to how valuable he was.

Cain wandered into the main courtyard, and came across Glitch napping on a bench under a spot of sun. The way the sun hit his skin, lighting it up, and reflected off the zipper, casting a halo-like shine, made Cain stop. He focused on his breathing, making sure that he was breathing. With his memory back, it made Cain doubt himself. Maybe this is why, he just couldn’t match up to the genius, couldn’t-wasn’t good enough.

“Hey there sweetheart, you’re gonna get burned if that zipper of yours heats up any more.” Cain took his hat off and placed it gently over the downy curls.

Eyes fluttered and then shot open, “Cain!” Glitch cried, not a moment’s hesitation, and flung himself towards Cain.

Cain caught the gangly man with a grunt, despite his thinness, Glitch was _not_ light.

Glitch grinned mischievously at Cain, “Well aren’t you going to kiss me? I’m not getting any younger you know!” 

Cain was hit with a memory of a much younger Ambrose, and a much younger Wyatt, and despite all of his worries, wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but holding this man in this sun dappled courtyard, in the palace he should have gone too much too long ago.

“Of course.” Cain murmured through half lidded eyes and swooped in to capture Glitch.


End file.
